"NERMEEN SHAIKH: We turn now to a new investigation into what a no-exceptions abortion ban looks like. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa went to El Salvador, which has one of the world's most restrictive anti-abortion laws, and looked at how women have been incarcerated after losing their babies. In the last two decades since the law was passed, it has prosecuted nearly 200 women for having obstetric emergencies."
"While exact numbers are difficult to ascertain, one woman who spent time in prison in El Salvador for a miscarriage estimated "that 90 percent of the women who are in prison in El Salvador are in prison for this," says Hinojosa. Hinojosa also cautions that a version of El Salvador's law could make its way to the United States as states pass more abortion bans following the end of Roe v. Wade."
El Salvador enforces one of the world's strictest total abortion bans, prosecuting and imprisoning women after obstetric emergencies such as miscarriages, stillbirths, hemorrhages, or labor complications. Nearly 200 women have been prosecuted in the two decades since the law's passage, and incarcerated survivors report high percentages of cases tied to pregnancy loss. Medical emergencies are treated as criminal matters, leading to investigations and convictions despite lack of evidence of intentional abortion. Observers warn that similar no-exception bans could be replicated elsewhere, including U.S. states enacting stringent abortion restrictions after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Read at Truthout
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